PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2012

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 27 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 07+08/12 www.petpla.net PET recycling from bottle to tray* *Based on an article by Thomas Gerstl, Krones AG Japan shows the way forward Japan has one of the most efficient PET bottle collection systems in the world. 72.1% of PET bottles are sent for recycling, an unheard-of proportion. 11% of the recy- clates are bottle-to-bottle applications, 34% fibres, 49% sheets and 6% other, according to the Japa- nese Council for PET bottle recycling. Bottle-to-tray – producing food-grade trays and transport con- tainers from used PET bottles: that’s the idea that the Japanese FP Corporation (FPCO) has recently been pursuing. In late 2010, the first bottle-to- bottle recycling system from Krones went into operation at the client’s facil- ity in Gifu-Hashima, enabling food- grade PET recyclate to be obtained. A second identical Krones line went into production there during June 2012. FPCO uses the newly installed line to produce flakes, which in its own plants are processed together with virgin PET to make new, transparent trays and packages. FPCO has thus opened up a new recycling market for itself, and closed the circuit for part of the PET containers on the market. In 1990 FPCO was one of the first companies to have nailed its colours to the mast of food package recycling. The logistics are run on ecological principles: firstly, the network of col- lection points, sorting plants, recycling facilities and distribution centres is highly decentralised nationwide, which enhances the firm’s close-at-hand consumer-responsiveness. FPCO uses near-infrared technol- ogy to sort containers made of OPS, PET, PP, PVC and other materials. As with the PS trays, consumers are asked to wash the transparent con- tainers and put them in the collection bins. The Japanese population coop- erates splendidly with this system, with the containers arriving at the collection and sorting facilities having been thoroughly precleaned. Recy- cling in Japan operates with consumer education and PR work. A deposit is not charged. Japan possesses one of the world’s most exemplary PET recycling systems, with take-back machines and public collection sacks. There is an abundance of collection containers provided at public places and at the supermarkets. Some local councils arrange special PET collections in the households on certain workdays. FDA approval The collection rate for PET bot- tles is currently running at more than 70%. Most of them are recycled to make fibres, though predominantly not in Japan, but in China. Specifi- cally, 596,000t of PET bottles were sold in Japan during 2009. Almost 430,000t of collected PET bottles were exported, the vast majority of them to China. In Japan itself, 200,000t were processed, predomi- nantly for making co-extruded films and fibres. “Precisely because the export rates for PET containers were so high, we devoted considerable thought to processing both the PET packages and the PET bottles col- lected in order to make PET trays. It’s simply essential to put in place more Japanese recycling capabili- ties for utilising these resources. So we wanted to implement both tray- to-tray and bottle-to-tray”, explains Yasuhiro Komatsu. “To enable the result to be re-used as food-grade PET, an FDA approval with a No- Objection Letter was required.” FCPO received this FDA approval line at the end of 2011. The first recycling line from Krones, is currently achieving an output of around 700t a month of finished flakes.